Category: Philosophy

I had the pleasure of being invited to dinner the other day by friends we have known for almost 20 years. Among their guests was a person with whom I had real difficulty communicating. The chief difficulty was that he seemed so certain of all his opinions, that there seemed to be little room for discussion. The situation was perhaps more difficult because we disagree on many important issues.

Ignorance is always with us. There was a time when an educated person in Europe could pretty much know everything that was considered important (by Europeans). Part of this education was the â€œGrand Tourâ€ -Â an extended journey around Europe and the Mediterranean to see ancient sites, visit libraries and galleries, and revisit the classic Greek and Roman texts. Read more about General Ignorance …

Itâ€™s easier to be ordinary. But in truth, none of us are. Every one of us is different, more different than perhaps we even know. So much of living in an organized society pushes us to conform, to comply, to disappear. Read more about Bearing the Truth …

Some mistakes teach, and some can kill you. The challenge is to know one from the other.

We all make mistakes. Itâ€™s part of our untidy human condition. The interesting question is how to reduce the severity of the mistakes we make, and how to deal with them when they happen. Making the right mistakes means that we learn and grow. The wrong mistakes put a permanent damper on our future.

Violence seems to be all around us. Journalists and politicians, especially in the run-up to an election, love to create the burning platform – a sense of urgency that sendsÂ adrenalin pumpingÂ through our veins, and justifies their sound-bites and simplistic talking points.

This is a great TED talk from Alain de Botton. It reflects an idea I’ve struggled with for many years: how to make use of and participate in the great religious ideas without subscribing to all the doctrinal mumbo-jumbo. He insightfully shows the many virtues of religious practice, and suggests that rather than throwing outRead more about Religion for the non-religious[…]

This is a great talk from Alain de Botton. It reflects an idea I’ve struggled with for many years: how to make use of and participate in the great religious ideas without subscribing to all the doctrinal mumbo-jumbo. He insightfully shows the many virtues of religious practice, and suggests that rather than throwing out theRead more about How anyone can benefit from religion[…]